Four of five people aboard a Wings of Alaska Cessna 207 survived a crash 18 miles from Juneau on the way to Hoonah on Friday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard announced in a statement Friday evening. The plane went down in the early afternoon near Point Howard and Point Couverden.

The survivors are Humberto Hernandez, 57, and his wife, Sandra Herrera, 60, both of Juneau; Jose Vasquez, 15, of Puerto Rico; and Ernestine Hanlon-Able, 64, of Hoonah, according to the Alaska State Troopers dispatch log updated late Friday night.

President Barack Obama will be in the state next month to discuss Arctic issues at a conference, a White House spokeswoman said in an emailed statement Friday.

Obama will be in Anchorage on Aug. 31 to give an address at Global Leadership in the Arctic: Cooperation, Innovation, Engagement and Resilience, or GLACIER, a U.S. Department of State conference surrounding Arctic policy.

Gov. Bill Walker’s budget director broached the subject of additional state taxes with Juneau’s business community Thursday.

Office of Management and Budget Director Pat Pitney was the guest speaker at the Juneau Chamber of Commerce luncheon the same day Walker announced his plan to unilaterally expand Medicaid without Legislative approval.

After months of standstill in the Alaska Legislature, everything changed for Medicaid expansion in the state with one press conference Thursday morning.

“Today, Alaska becomes the 30th state to accept the benefits of Medicaid expansion,” Gov. Bill Walker said to cheers and applause in a packed room at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium building in Anchorage.

Gov. Bill Walker has given the OK to continue work on the controversial road out of Juneau — up to a logical stopping point.

The governor placed an official hold on the Juneau Access Improvement Project and other big-ticket state projects in December, citing the state’s dwindling oil revenues and cash-strapped budget.

The $574 million road would be bankrolled at 90 percent by the federal government. But Walker has said he’s concerned about the long-term maintenance costs of a Lynn Canal highway, which the state would be responsible for.

Former University of Alaska Southeast student Carly Varness got an unwelcome email one night during finals week this year: The University of Alaska Fairbanks was suspending admission to the program she had worked years to apply for.

When Varness, 27, was an anthropology student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she realized she had a passion for studying teeth. In 2010, she decided to pursue a degree in dental hygiene, setting her sights on UAF’s competitive two-year vocational training program, which accepts only about five students per year.

The Mendenhall Glacier area will likely see more guided tours starting next year when permits for bus operators are reallocated to guide companies.

The U.S. Forest Service recently approved a transfer of permitted visitor days — days when tourism companies are allowed to operate at the glacier — from bus companies that transport tourists to the ones that lead the tours in the Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area. Each year, the Forest Service allocates those days to companies as a way to control access to the glacier.

University of Alaska president candidate Jim Johnsen said he expects the state university system to be providing fewer academic programs in 10 years, but that the remaining areas of study will be stronger and more successful.

Johnsen gave a sales pitch to a small group of people on Tuesday evening at Centennial Hall. The product he was selling was himself, another step in the months-long hiring process Johnsen has gone through to become the next leader of the state university system.

Cruise ships frequently draw the ire of environmentalists and locals for offloading their treated wastewater into Gastineau Channel and other Alaska water bodies, but another culprit has gone largely unnoticed.

According to state officials, Alaska Marine Highway System vessels have much more lenient rules when it comes to treating human waste and dirty water on board.

Alaska’s state ferries are equipped with water treatment systems that were standard in the 1970s, said Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation cruise ship program specialist Ed White.